Quiz 4


1) Umut Uras. “Turkey turning Hagia Sophia back into mosque divides social media.” Al Jazeera. July 11, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/turkey-turning-hagia-sophia-mosque-divides-social-media-200711104417533.html

This article shows points of views from Muslims, who feel the original structure should be preserved as what it once was, a mosque. While others want it to remain neutral as a museum. Historically speaking would it not make sense to accommodate Muslims in Turkey? Russia accommodated Russians in their communist country by allowing them to practice Islam while they expanded the Russian Empire. I am not sure why Turkey feels the need to take away a mosque and keep it as a neutral museum. This article was not the most interesting, but I can appreciate the fact that it brings to light a similar situation which we learned about when discussing religions in our home readings. When the article discusses how China is going out of their way to imprison Muslims, it makes me think of the battles the Chinese Communist Party had to take over China. I would say that the CCP is still going out of their way to do evil. Not to mention their organ harvesting problem, but we will try and stay on topic here. So it seems that changing something from a mosque to a museum and back to a mosque is a big deal to Muslims, but I think the bigger deal has to do with Muslims being imprisoned and having their houses of worship destroyed for no reason.

2) Anne Mawathe. “Coronavirus: Why Africans should take part in vaccine trials.” BBC. May 18, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52678741

This article claims that it is so necessary for Africans to take part in a vaccine trial, because it would be beneficial for the entire world, not just the rich nations. First off where did consent go? I didn't know that we lived in a world where we had zero choice of what goes in our body. What if African political leaders volunteered to help with the vaccine trials? That would show the people these vaccines are safe and necessary. We can just move on though because we all know that the elite politicians wouldn't ever put themselves at such risk! Vaccines that are tried and true took over 10 years to develop. For anyone who thinks a rushed vaccine for a disease so unknown like COVID is a good idea, I will happily let you be the trial patients for the vaccine. The article itself states it takes years or decades to develop a vaccine so one more time, why would any one want to take one "developed" in 6 months? 

Let's also discuss the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis. I don't want to get off topic so I will let everyone do their own research, but this is one of the biggest medical trial scandals in the history of the world. Alleged massacres by the Gates Foundation in India are censored by Google, so we have to say allegedly for those situations which are much worse (go ahead and look up the polio rate in India and then look up the dates Bill Gates vaccinated these poor children). African American men were crossed and violated with this syphilis scandal, so why would they want to volunteer themselves for this trial for COVID, which we don't know much about? This article even discusses the Pfizer trial in Kano where no consent was used and results were catastrophic. It is actually comical that this article is claiming the necessity of Africans to participate in a COVID vaccine trial. If Africans could trust these people running the trials maybe they would participate. But time and time again its been proven that these people running trials are far from trustworthy. This article might be proof that history will repeat it self when it comes to trials and Africans or African American's participating in those trials. The biggest issue of all, consent, can be thrown out the window I guess too. 

3) Ganesh Chakravarthi. “Is it Time to Embrace the Anthropocene? The Anthropocene requires that humanity take responsibility for preserving the earth and its species.” The Diplomat. February 11, 2020. https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/is-it-time-to-embrace-the-anthropocene/

This article is one I agree with the most. Anthropocene is essentially the toll earth has taken from those species who live on it, particularly to do with climate change. Fires in Australia and California seem like they have been happening on an annual basis. The drought in California is something we can all relate too. China is currently experiencing mass floods. Some would say these are biblical acts, but I will try and remain focused on this article. Historically we look at things like the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, and its hard to not think about how those two things actually impacted our environment. As discussed in a post from chapter 23, the loss of the green of the earth and the introduction of fossil fuels may have started this environmental phenomenon that we are currently living in today. This article really reminds of the Ice Age and the impact it had humanity and all other species on earth. It would be a shame to see some sort of opposite Ice Age in which the world burns, but it has already started happening in some parts of the world. I like how the article says Athropocene starts with a mindset. I totally agree and things like electric or hybrid vehicles, solar power and not using plastic, are truly ways we can shift our mindsets to preserve this wonderful planet we live on. I do think this change of mindset is starting to happen. An indicator to me would be companies like Tesla, Hyliion and Fisker (among many electric vehicle companies) pushing their products so hard AND consumers actually buying them. It is a two way street and I think we are seeing that shift in mindset, which hopefully will help us preserve this planet. 

Comments

  1. Oliver Q.July 15, 2020 at 10:40 PM

    Hi Tony,

    The first that stood out to me was the Tuskegee Experiment, emphasis on the experiment part which is really sad and concerning. This was an infamous study about syphilis specifically tested on an African male which is controversial as why they only chose black men. Many of those men died, experienced severe health problems and even caused blindness with insanity due to the untreated syphilis. So many innocent men were used as test dummies when thats such a cruel way of doing it without valuing the lives of these human beings. Its so unethical and just crazy to think that there are people that know what will happen but will proceed with the tests... its really sad to hear about this even til this day.

    Another that I resonated with was your talk about hybrid, electric, and more gas efficient vehicles being produced but if the economy or especially environmentalist cared then they would make it more affordable for everyone too. It has all been a money game and looking for profits to gain. Even the supply and demand of things can get hectic especially with COVID going on, so many people are mass purchasing because of panic of products being sold out. The costs of hand sanitizer, disinfectant sprays (which were always on the shelves prior to this pandemic), and other things have just doubled in price. Its a scary time to be alive, but yes I agree there is so much going on that we need to understand, comprehend, and focus on the importance of protecting our planet earth, push for equality, and have a global collaboration to hopefully create a vaccine that can protect us from this Corona Virus.

    Thanks for your informative and detailed answers to the article. Good luck in class, be safe, and take care!

    ReplyDelete

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